On Tue, 29 May 2007 10:49:36 -0000, thunder
wrote:

There have also been at least 12 sightings which were *confirmed* by
biologists. While some of these may have been escapes, here in New
Jersey, I have heard of several sightings with cubs, meaning there is a
breeding population. However, I must note that a breeding population has
not been confirmed.

Sometimes the reporting is behind the facts on wildlife populations.
When I was a young kid in the '50's I'd stay the summers on the
grandfolks "farm" in backwoods Ozarks. Real ridgerunner stuff; bucket
water from well, outhouse, woodstove, roosters waking you up, picking
off ticks, etc.
I'd wander into the woods exploring, and one year I heard a jackhammer
sound and figured that's a darn big woodpecker, I want to see it.
For about three days I'd go out and spend hours leaning motionless
against a tree near where I'd heard it, each day getting a little
closer.
I finally got to watch it pecking for about 2 minutes. It was a giant
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. This was about '55 or '56.
Some years later I looked it up and found it had been extinct in the
U.S. since sometime in the 1800's, but I knew better.
Now they've found it again in Arkansas and it's been reported on.
I saw it in Missouri, a few miles from the Arkansas border.
I may have mentioned the big woodpecker I saw to somebody, but
nobody cared anyway.
In 1973 I drove my '64 bug from Chicago to Portland, OR.
I kept off the interstate most of the time, doing some camping.
As I came through the mountains before Bend, OR, I was
on a long twisting downgrade. I shut down the engine and coasted for
miles, doing about 30 mph. I hadn't seen another car in hours.
I came around a sharp bend and about 30 yards in front of me, staring
right at me on the left shoulder was a gray, almost white wolf.
I still remember his eyes looking at me. He instantly turned and
leapt up the 5 foot or so cut of the road and disappeared into the
woods which closely bordered it.
I saw him in profile as he spun and leapt and estimated him to be
about 3 ft tall, and at least 7 ft in length, though some of that may
have been tail. The most amazing thing was the speed at which he
moved at least 10 feet to disappear into the woods. He was looking at
me for an instant, then he was just a blur. He spun in the air to the
tree line, and when he hit it, he just melted into it.
Sometimes I think he was a dream, but he wasn't.
I never told anybody except a few friends and family members about
that, and nobody really cared. Many years later I read there were no
gray wolves in Oregon at that time, but I knew better.
I sometimes regret in both the case of the woodpecker and the wolf not
reporting the sightings to those who keep track of such animals, but
then again maybe it's better I didn't.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure others saw these animals at some point, but
like me didn't think of reporting them.

--Vic